Lesson 5: The Art and Science of
Junk-Food Marketing
Venue for Marketing to
Students

How do food manufacturers market their product to teenagers?

Companies market to teens wherever they spend their time: o In schools o On the Internet o On cell phones o In video games

• Homes
• Schools
• Child-care settings
• Grocery stores
• Shopping malls
• Theaters
• Sporting events
• Airports

• Television commercials
• Product placement
• Internet advertising
• Advergames
• Social media
• In school advertising
• Texting
• Movies
• Partnerships

Television Commercials
Still the most widely used method of marketing foods to teens
• 75% of US food manufacturers' advertising budgets
• 95% of US fast-food restaurant budgets

Television Commercials
Kids view between 20,000
– 40,000 commercials each year
• By the time they graduate from high school, they are exposed to an estimated
360,000 television ads

Television Commercials
• 44% from the fats and sweets group
– Candy
– Soft drinks
– Cookies
– Chips
– Cakes and pastries

Television Commercials
• 11% to fast food advertising
• Most frequently advertised is high sugar cereals
• Limited exposure to fruit and vegetable advertisements or
NONE!

International Study
• Australia, US and UK had the most food advertisements geared towards youth
– Between 10 and 12 an hour
– Approximately 200 in a 20 hour period
• A nutritional analysis showed that typical advertisements were:
– High in fat – 62%
– High in sugar – 50%
– High in salt – 61%

Kids Shows Promote
Unhealthy Foods

Integrating Directly into a
TV Show
Brands in the storyline
• Product is sitting on a counter or table in the room
• Fully integrated into a show through commercials, audio and videos.

Example: American Idol and Coca-Cola
• Coke paid $26 million in advertising costs
• Used commercial time to roll-out new products (e.g. vanilla cokes).
• In the first season, they created a good luck to Kelly and Justin ad that was played before the announcement of the winner.
• After Kelly Clarkson won, they ran a congratulatory commercial for her for about a week.

Example: American Idol and Coca-Cola
• Red Room
– Instead of a green room waiting area for talent
• Had pictures of coke on the walls
• Coke coolers
• Coke branded internet kiosk
• Pinball machine
• Coke ribbon on couch

Example: American Idol and Coca-Cola
• Cokes in the background during interviews
• Nationwide radio promotion that gave away tickets to American Idol and passes to the red room

Example: American Idol and Coca-Cola
Coke branded drinks on judges table
Photo courtesy Ray Mickshaw/ FOX
L-R: Judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson

Internet Advertising
• Advertising to teens is changing rapidly due to the increase in technology
• The time that youth spend on the computer has increased by 63% since
2004

Internet Advertising
Food marketers are taking advantage of this trend by:
– Pop-up banners and ads online
– Food brand websites
– Online videos
– Advergames or advertising games
– Virtual worlds
Social media

Examples of food marketing websites
Pepsi
– Entire front page advertise the
X-factor television show
– Cross-marketing to Pizza Hut on this site
– Check out their website www.pepsi.com

Pepsi and the X-Factor
• There is a Pepsi pulse where individuals can tweet about the hosts and contestants
• See interviews with the host
• Share your opinion on the Pepsi sound-off page
• See the Pepsi performance of the week
• Sweepstakes for the final show

MARKETING APPROACHES
• Internet
– Banner ads are
– Which sites are placed on youth websites.
most commonly
– Dominos visited among
– Sonic teens?
– McDonalds
• Dominos
McCafe
• Pizza Hut
– Wendys
• McDonalds

Advergames
Advertisement Games
• 2008, marketers spent $403 million on advergame advertising
• Expected to reach $681 million by the year 2013
• Food company websites targeted to teens usually contain numerous advergames

Advergames
Advertisement Games
• General Mills has a website called
Millsberry o Advertise as “free online games” o Games allow youth to interact with their brand o Blurs the line between advertising and entertainment

Social Media
Approximately 70% of youth aged 14-
24 use social networks
• It is a new and creative way to reach teens
• Blurs the line between content and advertising
• Encourages youth to send marketing messages to their friends through
YouTube, Facebook, and other social media

Example: Social Media
• Youth can follow Pepsi on twitter to receive prizes and obtain coupons
• They can read food manufacturer blogs to hear about promotional events

In School Advertising
Food marketing in schools can be extensive and includes:
– Advertising in the cafeteria
– School billboards
– Team sponsorships

In School Advertising
Channel one is a television program shown in about 12,000 schools that reaches approximately eight million students
• Common advertisements on these broadcasts are:
– Soda
– Fast foods
– Chips
– Candies

In School Advertising
• Primarily for the sale of soft drinks from vending machines and short-term fundraising sales
• About 20% of US high schools offer brand-name fast foods, such as Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, or
Subway

A beverage contract with one US school district has the potential to generate up to $1.5 million per year

Example of School Marketing:
Teacher’s car marketing
• A large multinational food company tested an advertising campaign in
2001
– Paid ten elementary school teachers in Minneapolis, MN, US to drive cars to school
• Cars advertised Reese's Puffs, a sweetened cereal
• Cars had a vinyl ad on them

Example of School Marketing:
Teacher’s car marketing
• Teachers earned a $250 monthly stipend for their efforts as
"freelance brand managers"
• Campaign was supposed to last from early August through the first month of classes in
September
• Cancelled due to public protest

• Teens send an average of 3,000 texts a month
• Cell phone companies use a GPS
(Global Positioning System) to identify where teens are located and then send texts for area food establishments
• Teens can also text codes to food establishments to win prizes

• Incorporating brands into movies
• Fees are variable depending on the relative prominence of the placement
– Costs: usually around $50,000 to
$100,000
• Teens can also text codes to food establishments to win prizes
• May be placed as a backdrop "prop" or integral part of the script

Product placement first gained attention in 1982
– Movie E.T., The Extra Terrestrial
• Incorporated Reese’s pieces
(peanut butter candy) into the film
• Increased sales by 65% in one month!